In one known method of stowing cavities in underground mines, a first aqueous slurry containing a cement and a second aqueous slurry containing an inorganic salt that accelerates the setting and hardening of the cement are pumped to the site of the cavity where they are mixed together to form the filling composition which is allowed to set in the cavity to form a hardened mass. This procedure is called "pump packing" and a variety of materials have been developed for use in it. The second aqueous slurry generally contains calcium sulfate (especially natural or synthetic anhydrite) and lime (calcium oxide and/or calcium hydroxide and it is also common practice to include a clay such as bentonite.
In underground mines, high alumina cement has advantages over ordinary Portland cement in that it is much less aggressive to the skin and is therefore more easily handled; for that reason, high alumina cement is commonly employed in the pump packing process. However, high alumina cement also suffers from the disadvantage that it has a very short setting time; thus, high alumina cement as defined by British Standard (B.S.) 915, part 2, is required to show an initial setting time of from two to six hours and a final setting time not more than two hours after the initial set. This can cause serious problems in underground mining operations where the rigorous control and supervision of the mixing and pumping procedures are difficult. The relatively short setting time makes it necessary for the apparatus for pumping and mixing the cement slurry to be flushed clean after every cavity-filling operation in order to prevent the apparatus becoming blocked with set material. Such an occurrence may require parts, or even the whole, of a mixing and pumping system to be renewed or mechanically cleaned out; this can be a time-consuming and expensive task, especially if the production in the mine is halted.
There is clearly a need in the art for a method of producing a satisfactory cementitious composition that is based upon a material that has the advantages associated with high alumina cement but which avoids or lessens the problems associated with short initial setting times.